Mrs. Williams' Classroom Edit display name

Past projects 8

• Post-COVID Attendance Incentives At Our School

  Funded Aug 9, 2023

  I am distributing one snack item on Friday for students who have perfect attendance that week. I am also adding the names of those with perfect attendance on the "We Show Up" wall in the hallway. My oceanography class was working on making jellyfish crafts for the hallway ocean when I passed out snacks last week. One student said, "I love this class. Snacks and crafts. It is the best." Another student said, "I finally get a prize for doing what I already do, perfect attendance."

  I am surprised at how well this is working. "It makes me want to go to school," a student said. Who knew? For a mini-pack of fruit snacks? Amazing. The only thing I am worried about is how quickly I will run out of snacks. Attendance is improving, which means the snack supply is decreasing quickly.

  My next step is to keep track of students who get the snack four times. I'm planning on giving them one of the "Grand Prizes" which will be a full size snack or gift certificate to the student café for a fancy beverage.

  Thank you so much for trusting teachers to come up with positive ways to counteract the negative effects of the COVID pandemic on education. It is nice to be treated as a professional.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Williams

  This classroom project was brought to life by Alaska Department of Education & Early Development.

• Bad Air Day - STEM Solutions

  Funded Nov 9, 2018

  The ninth graders are planning their healthy air projects this week. About half of them will be collecting particulate matter data. The four new particulate matter devices are making data collection scheduling easier already. Students can check out the equipment for a longer period of time, allowing them to collect more data. In science, more data is always better.

  The students have chosen some fun topics this year. A few of their topics are:

  - gathering scientific data to prove your sister's room is dirtier than yours

  - determining if the age of library books influences the amount of particulate matter in the book

  - collecting data from around the school to see where particulate matter levels are the highest

  The new particulate matter data collection devices are very simple to use. We are very appreciative to have the new devices. Students will be collecting their data in February and March and presenting their projects in early April. Thanks again.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Williams

  This classroom project was brought to life by Samsung and one other donor.

• Things Are Looking Up - Drone Powered Data Collection

  Funded Nov 14, 2018

  I would like to give a drone update to all our amazing drone donors. The drone arrived this fall and we began the slow process of learning all about it. I'll be honest, we still have a lot to learn. The drone came with three batteries (thank you) and uses a cell phone as a display. The "pilot" has to pass a test about safety before the drone will fly. Also the drone is registered so if we do anything naughty they can hunt me down for proper punishment.

  The first flight for our drone took place in my living room. I discovered that flying a drone in the house is quite noisy. The flight lasted about one minute and the drone reached a height of about four feet. I quickly moved on to a second flight on my back deck. It was a windy November afternoon and the sun was setting. The drone does very well in the wind, but not in the dark. My piloting skills were pushed to the limit, but I'm happy to say the drone landed safely.

  This month some IB students are designing projects that will use the drone to collect data. With the increasing daylight our drone operation hours are increasing. I'm expecting great things when the students ideas are finally implemented. Thanks for your patience and thanks again for your donation.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Williams

• Brighten Our Day!

  Funded Oct 20, 2015

  I use the new projector every day. Every day I am thankful for the new projector I was able to purchase with this grant. It is used at the beginning of class to show the agenda for the day and a bell question for students to answer to get them started. I regularly use the projector for PowerPoint presentations and videos. The projector can also be used with the document camera.

  In the past I had to turn off the lights and close all the blinds because my old projector was so dim. Students could not use the solar powered calculators and see the screen at the same time. Now I can leave the lights on and the kids can still see the projector. Huge improvement.

  My classroom has an amazing view of the mountains that surround the valley we live in. Unfortunately many months of the school year the sun rises and sets very low on the horizon. This causes sunlight to shine directly onto my classroom walls. When this happened with my old projector, even turning the lights off wasn't enough. With the new, brighter projector ... problem solved.

  It is hard to get much approval out of teenagers. I was surprised at how many of them noticed and were appreciative of the new projector. Hopefully the benefits will continue for many years in the future. Thank you.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Williams

• Fully Charged - Batteries for STEM Education

  Funded Sep 22, 2014

  I'd like to give you an update on how having extra batteries on hand has impacted the classroom. The batteries have been used in the interactive remotes, graphing calculators and digital camera. We use the remotes for interactive games and quizzes. The kids like the instant feedback and competitive nature of using the remotes. On a regular basis a remote or two will give a "low battery" warning. It is so nice to be able to fix them up right away.

  The battery life of a graphing calculator is amazingly long. Our school allows students to check out graphing calculators from the library. Unfortunately they do not come with batteries, so I've been able to help out a few kids with the batteries you purchased.

  Just last week, the biology students were taking pictures of red onion cells using digital cameras and microscopes. I have a couple digital cameras for those that don't have phone/cameras. Your batteries were used to fire up the digital cameras too.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Williams

• Zoom Zoom Zoom, We Need A Digital Microscope

  Funded Oct 8, 2013

  We are loving the digital microscope! Recently we did a lab where the students made a slide of their cheek cells (animal cells) and Elodea plant cells. The digital microscope was one of the microscopes available for the students to use. The students were excited about using the new digital microscope. It allowed them to work easily with a partner. Both of the students could see what was happening at the same time. It also allowed me to easily glance over and see that they were looking at the correct thing. "No, that is dust, keep looking."

  Next week my advanced biology students will be using the digital microscope to save digital images of red onion cells that have been flooded with various concentrations of salt water. They will then be able to pull up the digital images on a computer and take measurements of various parts of the cells, analyzing how the plasma membrane responds to salt water. It is an important lab teaching them about cell homeostasis, but also incorporating microscope and computer skills. I'm excited about using the digital microscope for this purpose.

  Thanks again for your support. It is truly a blessing to live in a community that supports education, schools and students in such a direct and meaningful way.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Williams

• Write On!

  Funded Jul 27, 2013

  My students and I have one thing this year that we don't have to worry about. Having pencils. They've been trained on where to obtain a pencil if they find themselves in need of one. They truly appreciate that they don't have to use an eraser-less golf pencil like last year.

  More good news is that it looks like the pencils will last a long time. I was worried that students would become reliant on my pencils, purposefully coming to class unprepared because they know I have pencils. So far this has not been the case. The students who use one of my pencils are usually not repeat offenders.

  Thanks again. Your donation was a success!”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Williams

• Winter, Summer, Spring, Fall: Seasonal Changes Tell it All

  Funded Dec 24, 2011

  My students absolutely loved going outside to collect data! In fact, I started to get annoyed when each class period began with students asking,or begging, "Are we going outside today?!?" Often teachers who take their classes outside get labeled as too lazy to have a real lesson plan. The great thing about this project is that the students were given specific data collecting tasks each time they went outside. Each group met at a specific place, a numbered Frisbee golf basket, so I knew exactly where to find them.

  The data they collected included a dominant tree species and canopy cover investigation where they walked a transect looking up and down every other pace. They recorded what species of tree they saw when they looked directly up, and what ground cover they saw when they looked directly down. They learned to identify the plants found in Alaska. After the data was collected they calculated the percent canopy cover and dominant tree species.

  Another activity the students enjoyed was taking photos at their study site facing north, south, east and west. Students are told to never, ever have their phones out in school. This activity allowed them to use their phones for educational purposes. They could use the compass app to determine north, south east and west. Most of them took the pictures with their phones and then emailed them to me. Their photos were uploaded to the www.globe.gov website. Here they are used by scientists to verify the land cover images taken by satellites.

  Overall, the students really enjoyed the project and learned about the climate and land cover in Alaska. Thank you so much for providing the clipboards to make their data collection tasks easier.”

  With gratitude,

  Mrs. Williams

  This classroom project was brought to life by UPS Foundation and 5 other donors.